The present invention relates to a method of feeding and changing reels on a manufacturing machine. Hereinafter, the term "manufacturing machine" is intended to mean any machine employing wrapping or packing material in strip form.
Manufacturing machines, such as the one referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,662, are known to feature a reel feeding and changing device comprising a storage fixture supporting a number of reels arranged side by side, and designed to feed them successively to a pickup station where they are picked up one by one by a carriage and fed on to a reel-off platform. The platform is usually designed to accommodate two reels, one supplying the manufacturing machine, and a second standby reel loaded off the carriage. As soon as the first reel runs out, the platform is rotated to replace the first reel with the second and receive another standby reel.
On known reel feeding and changing devices of the aforementioned type, the storage fixture assigned to the reel-off platform constitutes a relatively cumbersome passive element requiring an active intermediate device, the carriage, for transferring the reels on to the reel-off platform.